C.E. Jottings

If we can't do the maths on neurodevelopment problems, can we at least agree on the words?

So many words we use as if we had a common understanding what they mean: “inclusion” for instance, or “needs”; “special educational needs” or “learning disability”. A few months ago, we finally, after very many years, successfully, or so we thought, saw our adult daughter moved from the “physical disabilities team” to the “learning disabilities team”. Today, we learned that there was a flaw in the assessment and that she must be re-assessed – parents not invited, by the way.... Read more →

A scandal being swept under the carpet: the different value of lives of people with learning disabilities

Rob Greig is the Chief Executive of the National Development Team for Inclusion. From 2001-2008, he was the Director of Learning Disabilities at the Department of Health. When he says "A learning disability scandal is being swept under the carpet", someone should listen. The Justice for LB campaign is widely, and rightly, viewed as one of the most successful examples of the mobilisation of public opinion to challenge service failure. For those not familiar with it, Connor Sparrowhawk, a young... Read more →

"The Tale of Laughing Boy". Watch it. Or, as I have just done, watch it again!

I have just been watching again, "The Tale of Laughing Boy". I don't want to get between you and this powerful film, so add no comment of my own. Except to urge you to give it the whole 15 minutes. "On 4th July 2013 Connor Sparrowhawk (AKA Laughing Boy), an 18 year old man with learning disabilities died of preventable causes whilst under the care of Southern Health at Slade House in Oxford. The Trust initially attributed his death to... Read more →

What's happening at Botton Village concerns all who work as volunteers with disabled adults

Over on Facebook, my friend John Popham draws attention to an innovative Dutch scheme that allows students to live in nursing homes rent-free (as long as they keep the residents company). "The university students pay no rent and in exchange spend at least 30 hours a month with some of the 160 elderly who live here, doing the things professional staff cannot always do". Here in the UK, an Order was (fortunately) made by the High Court on Friday, 13... Read more →

Thinking differently about special education (from Carter and his review of ITT)

The Carter Review of Initial Teacher Training has been published. I struggle to imagine who could possibly find it an essential and inspirational document. It is a little more than a re-hash of the prevailing orthodoxy. It has nothing of value to say about special education or special pedagogy. In contrast, and coincidentally, I am at the moment reading "Vygotsky and Special Needs Education: Rethinking Support for Children and Schools" (Continuum International Publishing Group 2011. Eds Harry Daniels and Mariane... Read more →

Re-imagining potential. Now that's more like it.

One meeting I enjoyed last week, was welcoming Constantin Court (Headteacher) and Karen Chester (Admisions Manager) from Brantwood Specialist School to Paces and Paces Campus. That led me to the School's website. Actually, I'd been to the website before so was suprised that I had not then noticed in the header their tag-line "re-imagining potential". Now I tend to bang on about potential. Particularly, objecting to glib formulations such as "unlocking potential" or "releasing potential". You'll find a couple of... Read more →

Childhood Neurodisability Research priority setting - Make suggestions for research - Survey open!

I'm going to quote this at length and hope that in the interests of spreading the word, the British Academy of Childhood Disability (BACD) is OK with that. The search is on for the top 10 ideas to establish childhood neurodisability priorities. BACD is asking for suggestions via a survey. You can take part online or by completing a questionnaire that can be emailed or posted to BACD. Here it is: Aims and objectives The aim of the Childhood Disability... Read more →

3 stories about public money - and a learning disabilities worry

Three stories in the news, a reflection prompted this morning by reading an article in The Guardian by Ian Birrell, former Deputy Editor of The Independent. There are calls for taking the railways back into public ownership. On Facebook recently, a petition was being circulated.Ian Birrell, noting that "one former rail boss" says that privatisation was "half-hearted and half-baked" opposes the idea. In South Yorkshire, the public sector Digital Region Project finally hits the buffers at a projected cost (ie... Read more →

Queen's Speech & SEN - more next week

We can, next week, expect DfE Ministers to set out their detailed response to consultation on the SEND Green Paper "Support and Aspiration" and a timetable for what they are describing as the biggest reform of special education in 30 years. In a DfE press release, accompanying the Queen's Speech to Parliament yesterday, the Minister, Sarah Teather, says, "In our Green Paper, Support and Aspiration, we set out plans for the biggest SEN reforms for 30 years – giving parents... Read more →

Hanif Kureishi can't skip .... but he is an artist of his own life #CondEd

Here's an article I think most of us in Conductive Education will understand. Unfortunately, it's in yesterday's Sunday Times Magazine section, behind Rupert's paywall: Think and You'll Miss It by writer Hanif Kureishi. He begins with an amusing admission that, having recently tried, he cannot skip with a rope; his 13-year old son, on the other hand, to whom he handed the rope, "did the whole thing backwards, singing a Beatles song". Which leads him shortly to: "My son who... Read more →